Sometimes the most interesting articles appear in the most unexpected places.

“The Tech Blog” is about Gadgets and .. er .. technology, but yesterday it carried an article entitled “Bringing politics to the people”.

Gordon is boring, so let’s find something interesting to talk about

The appointment of Gordon Brown is boring so let’s talk about democracy

“Recognising, perhaps, that Brown will be far closer to Blair in his policies than many of his followers would wish, the debate has moved up a level to address the processes, structures and operations of our flawed democracy.

And in a reflection of the changed times in which we live, much of the discussion is taking place online instead of in the traditional smoke-filled rooms or on the editorial pages of our finer newspapers.”

We then have a review of democracy using IT, and the blogger quoted several fascinating questions. Presumably some of these are echoed from “Open Politics”.

Interesting Questions

On a new Centre for Policy Studies and Direct Democracy leaflet “Open Politics”:

Open Politics makes interesting reading, even if the principle of localism which they claim as their own is rather close to the well-known European Union idea of ’subsidiarity’, dressed up so as not to frighten the eurosceptics in their party.

On how we can learn from the “People’s Petition” website:

There would be nothing to stop a group of activists creating a ‘People’s Bill’ website, gathering ideas and support and then trying to persuade a willing MP to introduce their most popular plan as a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament in a practical demonstration of how the mechanism would work.

On “Open Source Politics”:

The Tories have been thinking about networked politics for a while now.

Back in March shadow chancellor George Osborne gave an intriguing speech in which he called for ‘open source politics’ and pointed to the growing importance of social network sites in political organising.

That importance continues to grow, for example in the Protect Freedom of Information group on FaceBook, which has provided a focus for discussion and action to ensure that MPs do not exempt themselves from scrutiny under the cover of a mistaken belief that their constituency correspondence could be published.

On Youtube for a Candidates’ beauty parade:

If YouTube is out there, why not use it to give candidates a way to advertise themselves for selection?

On the context for the internet and politics:

We can surely now begin to think about the way we organise society and the ways in which political power is exercised on the assumption that the network is here and can be used. Not by everyone, not all the time, but to a sufficient degree to make it a core part of the political process just as the telephone and television are.

A new Resource

He introduced me to a new blog: The OurKingdom blog at Open Democracy, which I had not visited before. Worth a look if you are interested in democracy and constitution:

It will discuss Britain’s nations, institutions, constitution, administration, liberties, justice, peoples and media and their principles, identity and character. In a word our democracy in its broadest meaning, its history and future, from culture, participation and issues of centralisation and authority to equality, rights, responsibilities and who rules.

The blog itself is less indigestible than this description. It is, however, recommended by Matthew d’Ancona.

Wrapping Up

You can read the whole article “Bringing Politics to the People” on the Tech Blog, which so far is updated regularly. I hope he doesn’t stick to blogging about Gameboys.